JohnHowardReid Despite its title, this film is not exactly a homage to the French resistance. It is mostly concerned with a military prison in Germany in which members of the French army were interned during World War 2. Good performances (Peter Lorre is delightfully sinister) keep us glued to the screen. Gene Kelly also turns in a fine portrayal, even though he doesn't sing so much as a note or dance even a step! Also on hand is Jean Pierre Aumont. (Until I looked him up on IMDb, I didn't realize what a truly amazing career Aumont enjoyed in both France and the USA, and in both territories, both on stage and in movies. This remarkable doubling up seems also to be reflected in his married life. According to IMDb, Aumont married Marisa Pavan in 1956, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1963. Yet according to IMDb – which admittedly makes no big thing of this episode – Aumont re-married Marisa Pavan in 1969 and this re-marriage lasted until Aumont died at the age of ninety (or maybe ninety-three) on 30 January, 2001). Anyway, getting back to "The Cross of Lorraine", Tay Garnett's very capable direction highlights and really brings home the violence and sadism of the times. It's certainly a most unusual film for M.G.M. It's most definitely not escapist entertainment. Anything but! And the movie is also expensively mounted, although art director Daniel B. Cathcart does make use of some very poor and very obvious backdrops at times.

alanrhobson The Cross of Lorraine has many virtues - but also some serious flaws.It is gripping and involving, and has excellent performances and characterisations. Gene Kelly's excellent performance gives the lie to the claims by most of the leading film critics (eg. Leslie Halliwell, David Quinlan) that he couldn't really act (Halliwell said that his acting ability was 'minimal', whilst Quinlan said that he 'never convinced' as an actor). Had they forgotten his terrific performance here? As another reviewer has also said, the half-forgotten German character actor Tonio Selwart is also very good as the German commandant, as is Jean-Pierre Aumont as the hero.The film is also very well directed, for the most part, and has many good scenes.However, there are some disturbing aspects, partly due to the presence as co-scriptwriter of Ring Lardner Jr. Lardner was a member of the American Communist Party, despite the fact that Communism had been responsible for millions of deaths in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. His sympathies can be seen in the film in a number of ways. The traitor, Duval, played by Hume Cronyn, is shown as a capitalist wine merchant who puts business above loyalty. The traitor could have been given any occupation at all by the scriptwriters (French collaborators were from all sorts of occupations in real life) but Lardner had to make a heavy-handed swipe at capitalism.Similarly, the Spanish republican, Rodriguez (Joseph Calleia), is shown as as a heroic figure even though this charming character's aim in life is to kill as many fascists as possible. His positive portrayal is despite the fact that Spanish republicans were responsible for the murder of thousands of priests, nuns, middle class figures and other 'enemies of the state' in republican-controlled areas of Spain in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39).There is also another uncomfortable aspect to the film, due presumably to a combination of script and direction. The film positively revels in the slaughter of German soldiers in the climatic battle - even though in actual fact those particular Germans hadn't killed anyone in the village at the point when the insurrection starts. The film gleefully shows German soldiers being burnt alive, bludgeoned to death, and so on, seeming to take pride in allocating them grisly deaths.So, although this is a high quality film in most respects, it is also deeply flawed.

Spikeopath The Cross of Lorraine is directed by Tay Garnett {The Postman Always Rings Twice/A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court} & it stars Jean-Pierre Aumont and Gene Kelly and was adapted from Hans Habe's novel A Thousand Shall Fall. The story is about French prisoners of war held by the Germans in World War II.Yep, sure enough it's a propaganda piece, yep, sure enough it's low on budget, and, yep, the outcome will hold no surprises for anyone aware of propaganda based cinema. But don't let that in any way detract from what a tightly scripted and acted picture this is. Coming as it did in 1943 one could be forgiven for expecting a watered down tale of prisoners under duress; rising up and flipping the bird to those dam dirty Nazis. Yet, and with much thanks, we get a gritty and often brutal movie that's not afraid to call it as it sees it. The war, in case anyone was asleep during history class, was very much a case of the good against the bad and the makers here only reiterate that basic fact. With a couple of scenes memorable and worth the patience that is required to roll along with the predominantly dialogue driven tale.Backing up Kelly & Aumont are Peter Lorre, Cedric Hardwicke, Hume Cronyn & Wallace Ford. Which alone speaks volumes as to why this is a nifty little treasure yearning to be dug out by other film fans. But this also has a good print which is devoid of fractures and makes for an easy on the eye experience. A film like this now would most likely be laughed out of the studio executive offices, but this is 1943, a troubled time, and this is a fine movie that certainly has enough intelligence and spunk to stop it getting weighed down by flag waving histrionics. 7/10

dgniewek Tonight I watched Cross of Lorraine and I thought the film was a well done and a fine example of a "message movie" during wartime. The plot was predictable, but engaging. The characterizations were well drawn and believable. I thought it was fascinating to have such flawed characters among the "good guys" in a war-time message movie. The cast was excellent. Jean-Pierre Aumont and Hume Cronyn gave captivating performances. Gene Kelly played Victor, the brash hothead always looking for a fight who is tortured into submission. He reminded me of a young John Garfield in this role. It was a a truly heart-wrenching performance. Gene Kelly really has been so very underrated as a dramatic actor.